**Answer.** The question of concluding a treaty with Urquhart was raised by our government at a time when I was ill and was not in a position to take part in governmental affairs. Therefore, regarding all the details of this matter, I am not yet fully informed at the present time. Nevertheless, I can state with complete definiteness that there is no question and cannot be any question of a victory by the Left Communists at the present time. I know this from my direct observation of the course of governmental affairs.

The fact is that the unjust action of England, expressed in its unwillingness to admit us to the conference, was so unexpected, provoked such indignation in Russia, and united so firmly not only the Right Communists with the Left, but also a gigantic mass of non-party Russian population, workers and peasants, that the matter did not reach and could not reach any disagreement between the Left and Right Communists.

The justification for our rejection of the treaty with Urquhart expressed directly, one might say, not only the general Party mood, but precisely the general popular mood—that is, the mood of the entire working and entire peasant masses.

The resumption of negotiations and the further ratification of the treaty with Urquhart are first of all conditioned upon England eliminating the glaring injustices toward Russia which are connected with any curtailment of her rights to participate in the conference on Near Eastern questions. As for the concrete conditions proposed to us by Urquhart, I have not yet had time to occupy myself with this sufficiently in detail and can only say that the government has decided to let both supporters and opponents of this agreement speak out in our press as quickly as possible, so that from the most objective and well-reasoned discussion we can obtain material for the most serious verification of all

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